East

Chapter 18

The Boeing 747 sat under the lights at Changju. There were a few less vehicles around her than ten minutes ago as the last of the small cargo was now being loaded.

Bob stood on the cargo deck monitoring the loading and checking that everything was secure. His phone rang.

"Dad! Everything okay? We're almost ready to depart."

He listened in silence to his father speak and then reached for his radio. "Stop fueling. Repeat, stop fueling." Back on the phone, "I understand, let me talk to the flight deck and get back to you."

He moved to the door and down the ladder on the K-loader to the ramp. He waved at the fueler who waved back. He raised his hands in an 'X' and the fueler gave him a thumbs-up. Satisfied that the fueling had been stopped, he climbed back on to the aircraft, up the stairs to the upper deck and on to the flight deck.

"Paul, I have a request from my father."

The captain laughed. "If he wants us to fill the aircraft with chocolate, I'm okay with that."

"No, it's a little more involved than that. He wants us to perform an extraction mission."

"I'm listening."

"A young lady needs a ride out of the country. She can get to Seoul Air Base. For an 00:30 exit if we can make it."

"We can try, but why do I feel this is more complicated?"

"She is being hunted by the NIS for something she didn't do."

Paul Hollingsworth took all of this in his stride. Since leaving the Royal Air Force he had missed some of the excitement. "How are we with the fuel and load? Will we be able to land there safely?"

I've stopped the fueling until I got your buy-in. The load is light, I just need to do the weight and balance to see what we can handle."

"Okay, you start on that and I'll brief the rest of the crew. I have an idea. Just make sure we are not overweight for the landing."

***

As promised, Rae-Won's phone rang thirty minutes later. He raised it to his ear.

"This is Rae-Won."

"Jung Rae-Won-shi, this is Song Eun-Jae. We have a possible solution. Do you have something to write on?"

"Yes." He scrambled for his pen. "Go ahead."

"Do you know the Seongnam air base?"

"Yes." He was surprised. That was not an airfield he would thought could have offered an escape. It was a military air base that also handled VIP flights for visiting heads of state.

"There is a cargo flight departing from Cheongju tonight. It will try to divert to Seongnam. The plan is to collect Sora and depart to Amsterdam. It will unload and take a new cargo, then fly to England. We will meet her on arrival. Can Sora get to Seongnam by 00:30?"

"I don't know her current location. But if she can, how will she get on to the base?"

"On the airfield perimeter there is a service entrance at the south-east corner. She will be met there and escorted to the aircraft. Does she have a passport with her?"

"Yes."

"Good. Tell her that she must arrive quietly as there will be a lot of security for a Chinese government group. Arriving with people in pursuit will not work."

"Sora is better at this sort of thing than you might think. I have confidence in her."

"Okay, then please give her the instructions and tell her we will see her soon."